Wilson v. Clark

• Decision Date: 14 May 1973
• Docket Number: No. 47131,47131
• Citation: 278 So.2d 250
• Parties: C. W. WILSON v. C. A. CLARK et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 250

278 So.2d 250

C. W. WILSON v. C. A. CLARK et al.

No. 47131.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 14, 1973.

Rehearing Denied June 12, 1973.

Wells, Gerald, Brand, Watters & Cox, Jackson, for appellant.

Heidelberg, Woodliff & Franks, Luther M. Thompson, Jackson, for appellees.

WALKER, Justice:

This is an appeal from an order of the Chancery Court of Clarke County, Mississippi, sustaining special demurrers to a bill of complaint to remove clouds from title, quiet title and seeking an accounting of certain royalty payments for oil and gas produced from lands in Clarke County. The controversy arises out of an attempted tax sale by the Collector of Internal Revenue and the tax collector's deed executed pursuant thereto dated April 11, 1951. Appellant Wilson, among other things, contends that the description in the tax deed is void for lack of certainty. On November 20, 1971, appellant filed a bill of complaint in the Chancery Court of Clarke County seeking to remove as clouds on his title the claim of the defendants, all of whom claim through the tax sale purchaser, with the exception of Texaco, Inc., to certain mineral interest allegedly owned by appellant since 1934. Appellant seeks an accounting from Texaco, Inc. Thereafter on April 15, 1972, he amended his original bill of complaint and the appellees, C. A. Clark, et al., filed their answer thereto and set up a special demurrer to same contending that under the allegations of the amended bill that appellant was barred by Section 716, Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956), from bringing suit and was further barred by laches.

Since both of these points were raised by special demurrer, the issues are to be determined from the facts as alleged in the amended bill. In other words, the case comes before this Court on the pleadings.

We have considered the doctrine of laches in the light of the allegations of the amended bill of complaint and are of the opinion that laches is not applicable. That

leaves three questions for this Court to decide:

(1) Is the description of the property attempted to be conveyed by the tax collector's deed, or any part thereof, void for uncertainty?

(2) What curative effect, if any, does Section 716 have on the description in the tax collector's deed?

(3) Are the appellees who claim under the tax collector's deed entitled to the benefit of Texaco's occupancy of the property, as evidenced by its drilling and producing oil and gas therefrom, to the extent that they can claim to have occupied the property for more than three years and receive the curative benefits of Section 716?

The complainant recites in paragraph (3) of his amended bill that he is the owner of an undivided one-eighth mineral interest in the following described land in Clarke County, Mississippi:

NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 and five acres in the Southeast Corner of the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 4, Township 2 North, Range 16 East.

Paragraph (4) of the amended bill alleges that the controversy between the complainant and the defendants arises from an attempted tax sale of the aforesaid one-eighth mineral interest on March 7, 1950. On this date, Eugene Fly, Collector of Internal Revenue for Mississippi, offered for sale and purported to sell to Walter L. Griffee certain interest in NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 and five acres in the Southeast Corner of the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 4, Township 2 North, Range 16 East, Clarke County, Mississippi, owned by C. W. Wilson, complainant herein. Said tax sale is evidenced by a collector's mineral deed dated April 11, 1951, executed by Eugene Fly, Collector of Internal Revenue for Mississippi, in favor of Walter L. Griffee, purporting to convey the mineral and royalty interests owned by Cecil Wayne Wilson in '5.625 acres NE 1/4 of SE 1/4 and 5 acres in the S.E. Corner of NW 1/4 of SE 1/4 of Section 4, Twp. 2, R16E' and other land in Clarke County, Mississippi, a copy of which instrument was attached to the amended bill as Exhibit 'A' and incorporated therein by reference.

The amended bill alleges that the attempted tax sale was void because of indefinite and void descriptions used in the tax collector's mineral deed and for other reasons which are not pertinent to this opinion.

The amended bill further alleges that Texaco has drilled two wells on the subject property but that Texaco does not claim adversely to the complainant.

The amended bill further recites that that part of the subject property described as 5 acres in the Southeast Corner of NW 1/4 of SE 1/4 of Section 4, Township 2 North, Range 16 East, has been included in an oil and gas unit known as the O. H. Hollomon Unit 4-10, Quitman Field, consisting of the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 4, Township 2 North, Range 16 East, Clarke County, Mississippi, and that said well was drilled by Texaco, and has been in production from January 18, 1968, until the present. It further recites that the undivided one-eighth mineral interest owned by the complainant in the NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 4, Township 2 North, Range 16 East, has been placed in an oil and gas unit known as the Smith Unit 4-9, Quitman Field, Clarke County, Mississippi, consisting of said NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 4 and that oil and gas has been produced from this unit since August 2, 1967, and are currently being produced from said unit. However, there is no allegation in the bill to indicate by what authority, if any, the 'units' were established or for whose benefit they were established.

The dispositive questions in this case first center around the construction of the deed and the sufficiency of the description therein.

The mineral deed from the Collector of Internal Revenue, Eugene Fly, dated April NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the premises and the sum of SEVEN HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT & 64/100 DOLLARS ($738.64) cash in hand paid to me, and the surrender and delivery to me of the Certificate of Purchase, I, Eugene Fly, Collector of Internal Revenue in and for the collection District of Mississippi, do hereby sell, transfer and convey all right, title and interest of Cecil Wayne Wilson, as possessed and owned by him on the 7th day of February, 1950, or thereafter acquired, unto Walter L. Griffee, in and to the mineral and royalty interests in property lying and being situated in Clarke County, Mississippi, which is more particularly described as follows, to wit:

11, 1951, after reciting the reason for its execution, reads as follows:

2.5 acres E 1/2 of SE 1/4 of SW 1/4 Section 3, Twp 2; R 16 E

2.5 acres E 1/2 of SE 1/4 of SE 1/4 Section 9; twp 2; R 16 E

10 acres W 1/2 of NW 1/4; NW 1/4 of SW 1/4 and SE 1/4 of NW 1/4 Section 15, Twp 3; R 17 E

16.666 acres S 1/2 of SE 1/4; N 1/2 of SE 1/4 of SW 1/4 and SW 1/4 of SW 1/4 Section 23, and NE 1/4 of NW 1/4 and N 1/2 of NW 1/4 of NE 1/4 Section 26; Twp 1 N; R 17 E

20 acres NE 1/4 of NE 1/4 Section 28; Twp 4; R 17 E

40 Acres SW 1/4 of NW 1/4 Section 27 and SE 1/4 of NE 1/4 Section 28; Twp 4; R 17 E

7.9375 acres NW 1/4 of NW 1/4 less 8 1/4 acres to J. W. Wilson North of public road in Section 4; Twp 2; R 15 E

10 acres NE 1/4 of NW 1/4 Section 31; Twp 3N; R 15 E

2.5 acres E 1/2 of SE 1/4 of SE 1/4 Section 2; Twp 2; R 16 E

5 acres of S 1/2 of SW 1/4 of SW 1/4 of Section 9; Twp 2; R 16 E

2.5 acres W 1/2 of NE 1/4 of SW 1/4 Section 9; Twp 2; R 16 E

5.625 acres NE 1/4 of SE 1/4 and 5 acres in the S.E. Corner of NW 1/4 of SE 1/4 Section 4; Twp 2; R 16 E

10 acres SE 1/4 of SW 1/4 Section 7; Twp 2; R 15 E

12.5 acres all that part of the SE 1/4 of SW 1/4 of Section 30 and all that part of the N 1/2 of NW 1/4 of Section 31, which lies west of the N.O. and N.E. Rwy Company right-of-way, all being in Township 2, Range 14 East, and containing in the aggregate 50 acres more or less.

All above property located in Clarke County, Mississippi.

147.7285 acres

Witness my signature, on this the 11th day of April 1951.

/s/ Eugene Fly

COLLECTOR OF

INTERNAL REVENUE

COLLECTION

DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

The appellant contends that the description of the subject lands, being that part above italicized, in the tax deed is insufficient and void. We agree with that contention insofar as it applies to the mineral and royalty interests in the property in Clarke County described in the deed as '5.625 625 acres NE 1/4 of SE 1/4 . . . Section 4; Twp 2; R 16 E;' however we are of the opinion that the description with reference to the mineral and royalty interests in the property described as '. . . 5 acres in the S.E. Corner NW 1/4 of SE 1/4 Section 4; Twp 2; R 16 E' is valid.

In considering the sufficiency of the description of the property as stated in the obove deed, we first point out that there is a material distinction between the construction to be given a tax deed as opposed to a voluntary conveyance. This subject was very ably covered by Alfred E. Moreton, III, Comment, Descriptions and Tax Titles, 33 Miss.L.J. 76, 77 (1961), where he says:

The distinction between a tax sale and a voluntary conveyance assumes greater significance where the description is involved. One of the essentials of a valid deed is a description sufficient to identify the object upon which the deed is to operate. Since nothing passes by a deed but that described therein, a tax deed must contain a proper description so that the purchaser may acquire a good title. In private conveyances the general rule is that the intention of the parties, as gathered from the deed, is the criterion in determining the object of the grant, and the instrument is construed most favorably to the grantee. In a deed between individuals the question is what the owner intended to convey; in a tax deed the owner conveys nothing and does not intend to convey anything. Thus in a tax deed, words necessary to identify the...